Ian Taylor is a former Australian politician and Western Australian Deputy Premier

Deputy Premier of Western Australia

The Deputy Premier of Western Australia is a role in the Government of Western Australia assigned to a responsible Minister in the Australian state of Western Australia. It has second ranking behind the Premier of Western Australia in Cabinet, and its holder serves as Acting Premier during absence...

 and Opposition Leader

Leader of the Opposition (Western Australia)

The Leader of the Opposition in Western Australia is the leader of the largest minority political party or coalition of parties in the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Western Australia. By convention, he or she is generally a member of the Legislative Assembly...

.

Taylor was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly

Western Australian Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Perth....

 in 1981 as the Labor

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 member for Kalgoorlie

Electoral district of Kalgoorlie

Kalgoorlie is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia.The district includes not only the town of Kalgoorlie, but significant parts of the outback in central and eastern Western Australia....

. In 1986 he was appointed Minister for Health and also held the Aged Care, Lands and Consumer Affairs portfolios at various times. Following Brian Burke

Brian Burke

Brian Thomas Burke was Labor premier of Western Australia from 25 February 1983 until his resignation on 25 February 1988...

's resignation in 1988 he became Minister for Police in Peter Dowding

Peter Dowding

Peter McCallum Dowding SC was the 24th Premier of Western Australia, serving from 25 February 1988 until his resignation on 12 February 1990 after an internal party dispute....

's ministry and on Carmen Lawrence

Carmen Lawrence

Carmen Mary Lawrence is a retired Australian politician; a former Premier of Western Australia and the first woman to become Premier of a State of the Commonwealth of Australia....

's ascension to the premiership in 1990 he became Deputy Premier and Minister for Finance (although his portfolio varied during this time). Labor was defeated at the 1993 state election

Western Australian state election, 1993

Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 6 February 1993 to elect all 57 members to the Legislative Assembly and all 34 members to the Legislative Council...

 and Taylor became Leader of the Opposition in February 1994 when Lawrence resigned to enter federal parliament. He was succeeded by Jim McGinty

Jim McGinty

James Andrew McGinty is an Australian politician. He was a Labor member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 1990 to 2009, representing the district of Fremantle. He was Labor Party leader and Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1996...

 in October. In 1996 he resigned to contest the federal seat of Kalgoorlie

Division of Kalgoorlie

The Division of Kalgoorlie was an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Western Australia, named after the city of Kalgoorlie. The Division, which was proclaimed in 1900 as one of the original 75 divisions to be contested at the first Federal election, covered most of the land area of...

 against Labor rebel Graeme Campbell, who defeated him as an independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

.